Leo wiped the condensation off his third can of Jolt Cola and stared at the blinking amber light on the HP ProLiant DL380 G4. The rack groaned behind him, a choir of forty-seven fans spinning at 10,000 RPM. Outside the window, the Chicago skyline flickered with early November rain.
"Press any key to boot from CD or DVD..."
The disc shimmered under the cold fluorescent lights. "R2" in subtle lettering. "Enterprise" in bold. The little Windows flag that looked like a waving sheet caught in a gentle GUI breeze. Leo wiped the condensation off his third can
Maya leaned back. "You know, 2008 is only two years away. Longhorn Server. The one with the new kernel, the new UI, the new everything."
The blue text-mode setup screen appeared. The one that hadn't changed since Windows 2000. The one that said "Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition" in stark white letters on a background that felt like a 1990s corporate training video. "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD
Leo tapped the spacebar in the remote console. The emulated keystroke traveled 400 feet of Cat5e to the server room, then into the iLO processor, then into the virtual USB stack.
The spin-up whirr filled the silent lab. Then the click of the laser seeking. Then the familiar, beautiful sound of a disc being recognized. The little Windows flag that looked like a
Leo nodded. "The Smart Array 6i wants drivers that didn't exist when this server was born. We're slipstreaming tonight."
